Guy Caron tries to distance NDP from Quebec's secularism debate

NDP MP Guy Caron in a CP file photo from Tuesday, September 13, 2011 in Quebec City. A much delayed update of the Investment Canada Act promised by the federal government remains undelivered and makes the country a more difficult place to invest for a foreign company, the NDP says. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

NDP leadership candidate Guy Caron says it’s up to Quebec’s National Assembly to decide when and where residents of the province can wear religious symbols or cover their faces — even if he’s personally opposed to the idea of a ban.

In a document called “Quebec 2019: Blueprint for Success,” which he released Wednesday, the Quebec MP lays out his path for electoral success in his home province and explains how he would confront the identity politics that tripped up Tom Mulcair there in the 2015 campaign.

“Since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has placed secularism and the religious neutrality